November BSP Wrap-up and Slam Community News

This month has been amazing ladies and gents – The Ontario slam community is just exploding with talent and fervor. I’ve spent the last week or so hitting up other slams (and stalking Jovan Mays across the province), and as a result, I am in a constant state of poetic euphoria. So let’s get to it!

Burlington Slam Project – November 17th

Fantastic news for the Burlington Slam Project – our PSI fundraiser was a MAJOR hit. Thanks to EVERYBODY who came out to support! As a result of this effort, the BSP has raised enough money to apply for our PSI certification – Mission Accomplished baby!

And if that’s not enough, we had an amazing slam with an amazing feature!

Open Mic brought us a wide array of talent – Long time BSP supporter and helper-outer (It’s a word now, deal with it.) Michelle Darby dropped an original poem; something BSP had been waiting to see for a LONG time. Old friend and another BSP supporter (and creator of this here website) Duffman spit out a cover piece, and youth poets Freddie and Pickle handed us a little team piece. We also got to see a glimpse into the future by tiny poets Valerie, Gavin, and Isobel – The oldest of these kids is 12 and they’ve got the guts to get up on that microphone already.

And what?! New faces! TPS 2011 team member and nightmare fuel for citrus lovers everywhere Cathy Petch came down for the first time and brought a kind of magic as only she could (Just trust me.) And finally, new face Rouge Hill hit the mic and delivered some serious pen skills. I’m sure I’m not the only one hoping to see some more from this gent!

Of course, every slam needs a winner, and this month, it looks like one victory just wasn’t enough for The P.O.E. as he brought out some new work that blew the lid off of Philthy McNasty’s and made him champion for 2 months in a row. Coming in a very close second was Truth Is… and coming in a very close third was Cathy Petch.

And with all of this, as though it WASN’T ENOUGH – We were honoured to receive Universal Champion of Everything (Not the official title) Jovan Mays, as he delivered a -wide- selection of themes and pieces, from hilarious to heartbreaking to flat out infuriating – this is a man who can very easily turn the room into an extension of himself and make it feel however the hell he wants it to. Presence has a new definition in my personal dictionary.

As a final note – While P.O.E. won the slam, I have to say that the real winner of the night was Tim Peters’ homemade Grape Juice. Seriously. It’s incredible.

Slam Community – Guelph Poetry Slam turns 3!

Two days after BSP, our sister slam, the Guelph Poetry Slam, celebrated its 3rd anniversary with an -amazing- head to head slam competition. Victory was determined by crowd volume, and I’m not going to lie – picking between a pair of poets is HARD when they’re both incredible. Tough decisions, but one can’t complain that there are too many good poets, I suppose!

Readers will be happy to hear that Burlington made some -serious- progress through the night. 3 of the final 4 slammers were our own home-base poets – Tomy Bewick, Yogi, and The P.O.E. – the 4th semifinalist, not someone to be ignored, was Guelph Mastermind and love poet of hyper-unmatchedness Matthew Dryden.

P.O.E. ended up taking the win after a fierce battle with Tomy Bewick. He will be undergoing testing for poetry steroids before his next competition, I promise.

Congratulations to the Guelph Poetry Slam for hitting an amazing milestone! Here’s to 3 more years!

That’s all for now folks! Be sure to come out to BSP December 15th at Philthy McNasty’s for a feature by your very own Burlington Slam Project 2011 CFSW team! National Semi-finalists Yogi, The P.O.E., Dan (AKA Dan Murray(AKA Dan)), Oskar Niburski, and Kay’la Fraser will be giving you a BIG dose of what they got up to over the summer (And they’ll be giving someone else a chance to slam!)